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Open banking — where traditional banks can share datum , and construct unexampled services , by style of APIs that bring their maturate systems into the 21st century — has seen its biggest traction to date in ripe economic system , where the vast majority of consumer and business already have bank accounts ; are au fait with digital minutes ; and are receptive to trying out new approaches to routine problems if that can save them time and money .
But with even the most advanced markets still seeing very boring adoption — in the U.K. , for example , only 11 % of consumer , and 18 % of small businesses , have everused open banking — some are betting that therealpromise for these new services lies in formulate economies .
Prometeo , a inauguration out of Uruguay work up groove to enable unfastened banking across Latin America , is today announcing that it has picked up $ 13 million in funding to expand its business . evaluation is not being disclosed but the company says the round is at a “ standard ” dilution for Series A , meaning it ’s now in all probability valued at just under $ 100 million .
Since its founding in 2018 , Prometeo has acquire so far on comparatively lean funding . Prior to this rung , it had raised only around $ 6 million , says co - chief executive officer and atomic number 27 - founding father Ximena Aleman , who previously worked as a diary keeper covering the medium and technical school industriousness before taking a twist to fintech .
Perhaps in preserve with the unlikely root word of its CEO , Prometeo is also taking an nontraditional route to growth .
A lot of opened banking these days focused on interior rollouts — not least because banking conventions and ordinance are often very localised . Prometeo is taking a different course and undertake Latin America and its extensive fragmentation as a single market place , and using a single API to do so .
Under that one API , so far , it has turned on some 350 communication channel across 283 financial institutions in 10 countries . Brazil and Mexico are its two biggest at the moment , as well as being the great fintech markets in the area overall . And its most popular service so far mirror those that have also retrieve adhesive friction elsewhere : account - to - account defrayment and account validation , and ( for business ) cash direction , pronounce Aleman , who shares the chief operating officer line of work with co - founder Rodrigo Tumaián .
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The design is to bring on more users , impart more help and spread out to further geographies , she added , with tax revenue grow 10x in the last two years ( the inauguration is not disclosing factual revenue numbers ) .
All the same , the challenge look fellowship in open banking in the region are significant , start with the fact that Latin America , overall , is well behind more ripe markets like Western Europe and the U.S. when it come to financial religious service .
depository financial institution accounting penetration isestimated to be around 70%,and while that is showing growth , it ’s still behind the high 90 + per centum of countries in other region where unfastened banking has launched and taken off .
“ There is a lot of melioration still to be made for financial inclusion , ” let in Aleman , who describes daily dealing among most business concern and consumer as “ mostly cash - based . ”
calculate at differently , though , this could also spell opportunity . In more conventional markets , one of the biggest militant roadblock is the ubiquity of existing payment rail — specifically those run by the the likes of of major credit networks like Visa . That challenge , at least , is smaller in Latin America . ( It ’s not the only company that believes that undefended banking has a large part to play in financial services in the future : Last yr , the open banking startupIvy raise fundingspecifically to expand to Latin America ; and Christine compose here extensively onFinerio , an challenging open banking startup out of Mexico .
The companies backing Prometeo in this round underline not just who wants to grow their byplay in the region , but who believes opened banking could help them get there . Antler Elevate , a firm with solution in Asia Pacific , is leading the round , with PayPal Ventures , Samsung Next , DN Capital , Cometa and Magma Partners participating .
PayPal and Samsung Next , it should be noted , are not yet solve with Prometeo on service , but backing the inauguration signals their intention and interests . PayPal has been lay down roots via investments into local startups for years in the region . One of the biggest was back in 2019 , when it made a $ 750 million investment into marketplaceMercadoLibre . More of late , last year it led a $ 14 million pear-shaped intonocnoc , a Latin America cross - border commerce specialist . It also own the point - of - sale payment company Zettle , which has been prepare very large inroad into Latin America for years now .
Samsung , meanwhile , is the region ’s biggest nomadic phone vendor , with a market share ofmore than 40 % .
In both of these cases , there is a clear interest group in have a primal partnership , and an former seat at the mesa , in an arena that could potentially become big , even if it is not right now . Digital wallets , let in peregrine wallets — which both companies are betting will play a big part in how people transact in the future — are still a very small part of the Department of Commerce Proto-Indo European in the region , accounting for just10 % of all transactionsas of 2020 .
But the progress the startup has made , and the interestingness it has render among the big players in banking in the region — with partner such as Citi , Santander , J.P. Morgan , Vtex and many local players — has led to investor taking notice .
“ Prometeo , with its simple single API , provide banks and fiscal institutions access to payments and data throughout the entirety of Latin America , ” said Fady Abdel - Nour , a partner at Antler Elevate , in a statement . “ We are excited to married person with Ximena and Rodrigo to build up a company that ’s not just kick upstairs technology , but also empowering clientele to progress to new top of success . ”
